The portrayal of the events, people, and company that created a boomtown and a rare glimpse into the wheelings and dealings of cattle barons, oil tycoons, and politicos on a truly Texas scale.

At the age of thirty-three, Ekow Eshun—born in London to African-born parents—travels to Ghana in search of his roots. He goes from Accra, Ghana’s cosmopolitan capital city, to the storied slave forts of Elmina, and on to the historic warrior kingdom of Asante. During his journey, Eshun uncovers a long-held secret about his lineage that will compel him to question everything he knows about himself and where he comes from. From the London suburbs of his childhood to the twenty-first century African metropolis, Eshun’s is a moving chronicle of one man’s search for home, and of the pleasures and pitfalls of fashioning an identity in these vibrant contemporary worlds.

The city states of the Lowlands have lived in peace for decades, bastions of civilization, prosperity and sophistication, protected by treaties, trade and a belief in the reasonable nature of their neighbors. But meanwhile, in far-off corners, the Wasp Empire has been devouring city after city with its highly trained armies, its machines, it killing Art . . . And now its hunger for conquest and war has become insatiable. Only the aging Stenwold Maker, spymaster, artificer and statesman, can see that the long days of peace are over. It falls upon his shoulders to open the eyes of his people, before a black-and-gold tide sweeps down over the Lowlands and burns away everything in its path. But first he must stop himself from becoming the Empire's latest victim.

Blue Flames, Black Gold is a story of persistence. It's the intrepid wildcatters who ventured into Australia's dead heart and took a punt on drilling an oil well in virgin territory. It's the young Adelaide lawyer who dared to dream, and those on the sidelines who watched and scoffed. It's two school chums who started an exploration company amidst the oil fervour of 1954--a company that, 60 years later, would be the biggest company in South Australia. The history of Santos covers the excitement of exploration and discovery in the 1950s and '60s, the boardroom tussles and political wrangles of the 1970s and '80s, and the rise of technological developments in the new millennium. It tells the tale of an industrial township that forms in the remote Australian outback; of Alan Bond's controversial stock market deal which led to the South Australian government capping shareholdings for 28 years; the construction of the 1,100-km Moomba-to-Sydney pipeline bringing natural gas to Sydney for the first time; and the birth of the Coal Seam Gas industry. Blue Flames, Black Gold is not just the story of South Australia's biggest company but a story that encompasses the social and political history of the state and Australia's transition to the new energy sources of the future. It is the story of pioneers exploring new frontiers. It is a story of faith and vision and perseverance.

On one side are the mine-owners, men like Sterling Richardson, his weak corrupt brother Rickie, and Luke Proud, a newcomer to the saga. On the other are the Murphy brothers, miners and rabble-rousers, the Llewellyns and Jim O'Connor, the charismatic Irishman newly come to Sweyn's Eye. Between these two warring factions stand their women. Mali Richardson and Mary Sutton, once working class girls, now women of substance. Delmai Richardson, Rickie's treacherous wife, riding deveil-may-care towards her comeuppance, and Charlotte, Luke Proud's sister, born to sympathise with one side in the struggle, but in love with a man who ought to be her enemy. And above all, Katie Murphy, betrayed so often before in love, now caught in a deadly crossfire between her brothers and their masters, the mine-pwners. Black Gold is, more t han anything, Katie's story, for in her dilemma is summed up the tragedy and splendour of this conflict between strong men of political ambition and great dreams.